Shiv Nadar Foundation to expand Rs 150-cr edu initiative

HCL founder's philanthropic arm runs schools for underprivileged in UP

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Shiv Nadar Foundation, which has pumped in Rs 150 crore in setting up two boarding schools in Uttar Pradesh, is expanding these facilities to accommodate more students.

VidyaGyan, the two academies for the unprivileged rural-based children, are set inside sprawling campuses at Bulandshahr and Sitapur districts.

The foundation, which is the philanthropic arm of HCL promoter Shiv Nadar, had recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the UP government for conducting the selection procedure in all 75 districts.

The schools, which run classes from VI to XII, pick up meritorious students from government run-schools after a three-tier selection process.

Shiv Nadar Foundation trustee Roshni Nadar Malhotra said: "Earlier, the foundation had planned to open seven-eight schools across UP. Since these were boarding schools, we later decided to only have two bigger facilities for better logistics and faculty support, without compromising on the quality of academics and activity based learning."

Malhotra is also the non-executive director of HCL Technologies.

Earlier, Shiv Nadar had also visited the Sitapur campus. UP Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani on Sunday inaugurated a 1,400-capacity amphitheatre.

Meanwhile, Roshini Nadar said the company's total investments so far in philanthropic initiatives were to the tune of Rs 1,800 crore, adding it would be ramped up to Rs 3,000 crore in the next five years. The foundation also runs Shiv Nadar University at Greater Noida.

Sitapur campus, which started in 2011, presently houses 640 students and in full capacity would accommodate 2,000 pupils.

The foundation plans to set up VidyaGyan Trust to fund higher education of pupils. "We would solicit the support of individuals and philanthropists to build up the corpus, which would be used to offer interest free loans to deserving VidyaGyan students to pursue higher studies in India and abroad," she said.